November 2016 News Archive

Crime statistics released for third quarter of 2016 alongside APP update

November 8, 2016 9:13 AM

(Red Deer, Alberta)

Third quarter crime statistics for Red Deer, coupled with an update on the 2016-17 Annual Policing Plan (APP), show that property crimes and robberies continue to drive the overall increase in Criminal Code offenses, while persons crimes remain consistent with last year and traffic collisions decreased in both injury and property damage categories.

“The increase in property crimes is consistent across the province and beyond, and our Project Pinpoint crime reduction strategy targets those individuals who are responsible for much of that increase in Red Deer,” said Superintendent Ken Foster, Officer in Charge at Red Deer RCMP detachment. “Our focus is on identifying prolific criminals, problem addresses and crime hot spots and putting career offenders before the courts in higher numbers than ever.”

Project Pinpoint focuses on data analysis and targeted enforcement. From April 6 to September 6, Red Deer RCMP conducted 458 checks on targeted people, places and criminal patterns, including 139 identified people on parole and/ or probation and 70 more career criminals with an active history of property crime. Preliminary analysis shows at least 266 charges have been laid specific to Project Pinpoint targets during this time period, with more pending; more than 175 warrants have been executed.

The implementation of Project Pinpoint was identified as a priority in the 2016-2017 APP, along with monitoring high-risk domestic offenders, youth, road safety and organized crime. The APP objectives and measures for success are developed each year by Red Deer RCMP in conjunction with Red Deer City Council and The City of Red Deer, and the numbers for the first six months show RCMP are on target to achieve and exceed the objectives.

“Community safety and crime reduction have been identified as the top priority by our public. In response to community concern, City Council has been actively working with City staff and the RCMP to elevate our local enforcement efforts,” said Mayor Tara Veer. “We have begun to see reductions in organized and persons crime, through the enforcement priorities in our local Annual Policing Plan; we know, however, we still have substantial work to do.

“Council has met with our new Officer in charge, Superintendent Foster, and will be having subsequent discussions to ensure concerns of our citizens are addressed. We have identified the need to focus on reducing local property crimes in addition to the ongoing efforts to reduce organized and persons crime. As always, we strongly encourage all Red Deerians to report all crime to the RCMP.”

The attached RCMP crime statistics compare the time period from January 1 to September 30 over five years, from 2012-2016. The APP follows the RCMP fiscal year from April 1 to March 31 annually, and this update covers the time period from July 1 to September 30.